all cases subjecting the stockholders to the loss accruing from the transac tion. Again, we conceive that loans upon accommodation paper causes at all times great injury to the public at large, by creating those excessive issues in bank circulation which have heretofore taken place, and may be regarded as one of the causes of the present depression of business throughout the country. It may be assumed as an undeniable axiom in the business of banking, that such issues are always excessive; and that in precise proportion to their amount, they derange the just relations of currency and trade, produce sudden and unnatural expansion in prices, and disorganize the various business interests of society. The present reduced movement on the part of those banks having abundant means on hand, may therefore be regarded as evidence of their prudent administration by a proper conformity to the state of things existing around them, and as exhibiting a determination to forego the acquisition of present profits for the sake of their own ultimate safety. The condition of the banks in the city of New-York, the great centre of the commercial and moneyed transactions of the State and Union, will ap pear by their statements to be uncommonly strong in the possession of an extraordinary amount of specie and other funds, whilst their liabilities, exclusive of capital stock and deposits, are but nominal. The state of these institutions presents gratifying evidence, that when the time shall arrive in which extensive moneyed facilities may be required in conducting the operations of a renovated and prosperous commerce, no want of means will exist in that quarter at least in giving such operations the necessary impulse and efficiency. The domestic exchanges within the limits of the State have, during the past year, not only been uniform but also at rates so low, and so easily effected at all times, as to indicate a healthy, although a depressed, action in the moneyed affairs of the banks. The law of the 4th of May, 1840, re. quiring the country banks to keep agents in New-York and Albany, for the redemption of their circulating notes, has worked with admirable effect in preserving uniformity in the rates of discount, and in preventing those impositions which were before too frequently practised upon the public. It is well known that prior to this period, it was not unusual to discredit the notes of sound institutions, for the sole purpose of purchasing them in market; in this manner the inequality in the rates of discount between the notes of the various country banks became dependant upon causes entirely fictitious, and having no reference to the actual state of the institutions by which they were issued. This law has also effectually checked the establishment of associations under the general banking law, at places so remote and difficult of access, as to render the transmission of the notes for redemption vexatious and expensive. During the year ending on the first of the present month, [January] the loans and discounts of all the CHARTERED BANKS* now remaining, and being eighty-five in number, as compared with the same banks on the first of January, 1842, have diminished $2,959,602. The discounted debt of forty-three BANKING ASSOCIATIONS has increased within this period $974,263, making an aggregate of diminution in all the banks of the State, of $1,985.339. The circulation of the chartered banks has also been reduced $2,027,810 and the free banks $60,794, showing the whole decrease of circulation to be $2,088,604. The specie of the chartered banks has increased $2,094,602, and the free banks $974,000, making the whole increase of specie $3,068,602. The table below will exhibit a comparative view of the resources and * Several of the chartered banks do not come under the Safety Fund act, liabilities of all the chartered and free banks for the last two years, exclud ing eight, viz: the La Fayette Bank in the city of New-York, the Watervliet Bank, the Clinton County Bank, the Bank of Lyons, and the North River Bank whose charter has expired, and which has since gone into operation under the general banking law, together with the James Bank, the Farmers' Bank of Malone, and the Manufacturers' Bank at Ulsterwhich last named association did not make any returns last year. The line of cash items in the column of resources, in the New-York banks, embrace a large amount of treasury notes. The reports of the 81 SAFETY FUND BANKS* exhibit nominal profits on hand to the amount of $3,359,772. On deducting therefrom the aggregate expenses and contributions to the fund amounting to $1,484,718, the balance will be $1,875,054, being a little over 6 per cent. To determine the circulation of all the banks, the amount of notes of other banks contained in the statements should be deducted. This account would then stand, in relation to the specie in the banks, as follows: The 131 banks which have made returns show the cir SAFETY FUND BANK STATEMENT, Compiled from the Bank Commissioners' Report, January, 1843. NEW YORK CITY BANKS. Capital. Deposits. Circula- Specie. Loans and Div'ds, NAME. tion. discounts 1842. Total, 16 Banks, 15,311, 20010, 859, 068 3, 383, 187 4,958, 763 21,339, 609 843,716 SAFETY FUND BANK STATEMENT, &c.—CONTINUED. NAME. Capital. Deposits. Circula- Specie. Loans and Div'ds, discounts. 1842. tion. FREE BANK STATEMENT, Compiled from the Bank Commissioners' Report, January, 1843. NAME. Bank of Commerce,. Present Deposits. Circula- Specie. Loans and Div'ds, Capital. discounts. 1842. tion. 374,700 79,517 734, 739 Farmers' & Drov. Bank 8, 434 1,547 111, 150 4,831 Powell Bank, 14, 116 57,836 21, 151 2,656 Middletown Bank, 135,000 59,726 6, 669 84,000 10,871 Pine-Plains Bank,.. 18, 748 45, 128 41,724 100,000 Farmers' B'k of Hudson 135, 450 2,976 Kinderhook Bank,. 27, 285 93, 359 5,040 S, 000 ..... 115, 225 85,669 Delaware Bank,. 17,046 32, 227 8,127 3,908 106, 100 19, 878 49, 380 Albany Exchange Bank, 74, 079 311, 100 Com. Bank of Troy, 81,691 55, 613 7,000 6,016 360, 512 Howard T. & B. Co... 27,813 21,777 4,907 100,000 Washington Co. Bank, 109, 284 122, 180 15,677 5, 512 3, 124 102,000 55,499 Ballston Spa Bank,. 27,000 125,000 5,660 20,738 38, 466 34,612 7,140 6, 643 100,000 8,908 52, 394 9,375 26, 868 100,000 1,460 7,482 24, 229 39,063 3,300 100, 800 3,029 10, 681 37,075 21,520 100, 500 1,701 11,929 45, 138 36,779 8, 120 100,000 17,365 34, 813 115, 200 2,006 33,070 53, 643 57,268 8,000 100,000 4,084 Bank of Waterville, 7,202 100, 287 31,000 Bank of Lowville, 130,000 7,679 5,755 38, 348 63,933 8,000 102, 450 5,766 Bank of Watertown, 14, 724 50, 181 51,436 4,550 Bank of Syracuse,*. 100,000 3, 102 23, 134 59, 235 41,433 4,098 218, 100 6,285 61, 665 42, 248 72, 309 4,070 9,083 158,054 15, 267 * Statement of 1842. |